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2021 (2) TMI 824 - AT - Insolvency and BankruptcyMaintainability of application - initiation of CIRP - Corporate Debtor failed to make repayment of its debt - existence of debt and dispute or not - whether there is any ‘Existence of a Dispute’, and whether the Appellant has raised a plausible contention requiring further investigation which is not a patently feeble legal argument or an assertion of facts unsupported by evidence and whether the Dispute is ‘Pre-Existing’? HELD THAT:- It is clear that the existence of ‘Dispute’ must be ‘pre-existing’ i.e. it must exist before the receipt of the demand notice or invoice. If it comes to the notice of the Adjudicating Authority that the ‘operational debt’ is exceeding rupees one lakh and the Application shows that the aforesaid debt is due and payable and has not been paid, in such case, in absence of any existence of a ‘Dispute’ between the parties or the record of the pendency of a suit or arbitration proceeding filed before the receipt of the demand notice of the unpaid ‘operational debt’, the Application under Section 9 cannot be rejected and is required to be admitted. This Tribunal without going into the merits of the ‘Dispute’ holds that the documentary evidence furnished with the Application read with the email communication shows that the debt is ‘due and payable’ and has not been paid and there is no plausible contention which requires further investigation and that the ‘Dispute’ raised is only a patently feeble argument unsupported by evidence. Hence, this Tribunal is of the considered view that the ratio of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in M/s. Mobilox Innovations Pvt. Ltd., [2017 (9) TMI 1270 - SUPREME COURT] squarely applies to the facts of this case as the Hon’ble Apex Court has laid down that the ‘Dispute’, if any, should be ‘Pre-Existing’ and also that it cannot be a feeble argument. Merely contending that accounts were not reconciled for almost a year in our considered opinion, can be construed as a ‘feeble and spurious argument’. A perusal of the contents of the reply to the Demand Notice, this Tribunal is unable to find any ‘Dispute’. It is seen from the record that at the earliest point of time, the Corporate Debtor did not raise any dispute that existed between the parties. For all the reasons assigned in this instant Appeal, we do not find any illegality or infirmity in the Order passed by the Learned Adjudicating Authority warranting our interference - Appeal dismissed.
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